It was Just a Joke
by ChandaK562
Summary: Brenda's making potions and a practical joke goes slightly wrong.
1. Default Chapter

Another bunny got me this afternoon. Help, someone?  
  
Brenda looked from the book sitting on the table to the cauldron that was in front of her, checking that she had made sure to add all of the ingredients in the potion in the exact order.  
  
"Okay. Stir three times counter clockwise twice?" She muttered to herself. Was that right? She thought that was what the book said but it did sound a bit odd. After a moment, she shrugged and started to stir.  
Three times was a pretty magical number, she thought, so doing it twice would probably make the potion twice as strong. She smiled happily as she looked down into her cauldron. She couldn't believe her good luck to find the book she was currently using just lying in the hallway in front of Dr.  
James's office. It was rather tattered and since it was handwritten, she was sure that it must be very old. And an old potions book was sure to have some things in it that would work. After all, it was time tested.  
The potion book she had been using before definitely hadn't worked. Steg had acted affectionate for a little while but then it had wore off.  
  
"Perfect!" She smiled as she looked into the cauldron and saw the purple mixture almost glowing back at her. Purple, that was a kind of romantic color and then there was the name of the potion, Deadly Passion,  
just what she wanted. Suddenly, she frowned and pulled the book a bit closer. The handwriting was pretty terrible, especially in the title. She squinted to read it better. Was that Deadly Passion or Deadly Poison?  
After a few minutes of staring at the book from every angle that she could think of, she still couldn't make up her mind.  
  
Brenda picked the cauldron up, starting to dump it into the sink but she suddenly stopped. She had gone to a lot of trouble to make this thing and she hated to let it go to waste. And it looked harmless, after all.  
Maybe she could test it on someone else first and then if they didn't die,  
she could give it to Steg. With a smile, she sit the cauldron down and picked up a bottle to pour it into. She really, really hoped that it was Deadly Passion. That sounded like a whole lot of fun.  
  
Several minutes later, Brenda wondered into the doctor's lounge,  
the potion stuffed into her pocket. She glanced around the room looking for a likely target. She could just pour a bit into someone's food or drink or.... Wait a minute, no one in the blasted room was eating! They didn't have so much as a cookie! What gave with that? It was supper-time.  
They all should have been munching away!  
  
"I can't believe someone at all of the lunches," one of the residents said with a shake of his head as he drifted out the door followed by a nurse.  
  
Brenda frowned on hearing this news. She had counted on having a wide range of possible test subjects, of maybe even feeding the potion to that obnoxious Hook. If it killed him, after all, she wouldn't exactly need Deadly Passion to get some action out of Steg. Now what was she going to do?  
  
Just then the door came open and Dr. Havens came in with a cup of coffee. Brenda frowned for a moment. At his age, how was she going to know if he died due to the potion or old age? Beggars couldn't be choosers,  
though. As Dr. Havens sat his cup of coffee down to open the refrigerator,  
she quickly dumped some of the potion into it and backed away before he could notice anything suspicious.  
  
"What happened to my supper?" Dr. Havens asked as he turned around, holding up an empty brown bag. His wife had sent him lasagna leftovers and a large slice of chocolate cake that he had been dying to eat.  
  
"Who knows. So, got a lot of work to do tonight?" Brenda asked.  
She should know where to check for the potential corpse later.  
"An autopsy that has to be ready by tomorrow." Dr. Havens said with a shake of his head. "Guess I'll have to grab something from the machine. See you later."  
  
Brenda smiled as he exited the room. She would just have to pop down to the morgue in a few hours and see if he was dead. And if he was by some chance, well, then she could just feed the rest of the potion to Hook somehow. Steg would be thrilled with her if she did that. 


	2. Chapter 2

Lona shook her head as she headed down to the sleep lab again.  
'Day's just going perfectly so far,' she thought sarcastically. First the computer had gone crazy deleting important records that she had then had to spend hours recovering before she could do anymore research. Then someone ate her supper. a sudden, sharp pain of hunger reminded her that she was either going to have to hit a vending machine soon or risk the cafeteria.  
Now to make matters worse, she was going to have to deal with Elmer for the night. She shook her head, anger and frustration starting to build at the thought of him and that prank he had tried to pull. Someone really had to do something about him. If he wasn't such a good test subject, she would seriously consider banning him from the lab sometimes.  
  
"Still mad at Elmer?" Carrie said as Lona entered the lab, smiling in definite sympathy. It had scared her half to death when she opened that bag and saw what was inside. She wondered what Elmer had ever done with the blasted thing. She was pretty sure that he hadn't returned it to the morgue.  
  
"Aren't you?" Lona said with a shake of her head as she sat down,  
relieved to see that Elmer was already sleeping instead of waiting to pester her again. Honestly, he knew how to behave, she knew that he did and he could be just so darn sweet sometimes but then he would go and do something stupid like that head. Another pain in her stomach distracted her momentarily from thinking about Elmer. "Hey, did your supper survive whoever raided the staff lounge or do you want me to see about ordering a pizza?"  
  
"I don't think there are any pizza places that will deliver here anymore," Carrie said with a shake of her head. "The last one claimed an ambulance tried to run him down and.... We could call anyway, I suppose.  
Maybe they've found some new drivers?"  
  
Carrie looked through the glass at the sleeping Elmer as she spoke,  
annoyance washing over her at the sight of him. "Hey, what about that trick you were thinking of playing on him? Do you want to do that or not?"  
  
"I don't know," Lona said with a shake of her head as she joined Carrie in watching Elmer. It would serve Elmer right if she did do it. He had wanted her to think he had cut his own head off, so making him think she was dead would definitely be a fitting payback. Maybe it might be going a little too far, though. I mean, the head incident was so silly that there was no way that she would have fallen for it but.... On the other hand, maybe a nice, serious scare would make Elmer shape up and stop doing this stupid stuff. He was going to end up getting into real trouble if he didn't so in a way, she would actually be helping him.  
  
'Just keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better,' a little voice in her head whispered softly but Lona pushed that aside as she looked over at the now grinning Carrie. "Let's do it!" she told the nurse.  
  
A short time later, Lona was applying coloring to her skin to simulate a dead appearance. "Methylene Blue." She said with a smile as she finished applying it to her face and let Carrie start to dab it onto her hands. "Like food coloring."  
  
Carrie shook her head slightly at that. Apparently it hadn't occurred to Lona that also like food coloring, this stuff would be a bit difficult to remove. She supposed it was a good thing Lona spent so much time in the sleep lab. Somehow she doubted that it would reassure the patients much if Lona was wandering around upstairs looking like the walking undead.  
  
"Now, it will take me a little bit to get down there and get everything worked out so you wait about twenty, twenty-five minutes before waking him up. Just tell him that I had a subarachnoid hemmorage and died just like that. Do you think you can act upset enough to fool him?" Wait a minute, why was she even asking that? Carrie fainted any time that she saw blood or any thing in the least bit alarming. Of course she could manage looking upset.  
  
Carrie rolled her eyes, motioning for Lona to head down to the morgue. "Don't worry. I'll handle everything in here. I've got to go up to the ICU after I get Elmer down to the morgue though so you're on your own after that." Oh, this was going to be rich to see how Elmer would react to being the prank victim for once. A part of Carrie started to nag at her as she looked through the glass at the sleeping Elmer, saying that this joke might not be a good idea but she pushed that firmly away.  
Someone had to teach Elmer a lesson.  
  
As soon as she entered the morgue, Lona begin to have second thoughts. Okay, Elmer did need to be punished for what he had done but was this the best way to go about it, pretending that she was dead to frighten him? 'Think about all of the people he's lost, Lona,' he conscience whispered to her. 'Think about that and then how much it would hurt him if he thought that he had lost you too.'  
  
"He just has a crush on me, just a blasted crush! It's not like he's really in love with me! He just thinks that he is!" Lona hissed under her breath as she started to undress. And maybe this would be what it would take to get Elmer to stop following her around like a puppy dog.  
She felt a slight ache inside as she thought of that happening but she firmly pushed it down, hopping up onto the autopsy table and pulling a sheet up to her shoulders as she laid down. She shivered slightly as the cold metal caused goosebumps to form on the exposed skin of her back and she had to concentrate on laying perfectly still. How much longer would it be before Carrie came down there with Elmer? She wasn't sure exactly what she would do when he came in. She hadn't really worked that part of the joke out yet. Jumping up and scaring him right away was probably best, she supposed, rather than letting him pour out his heart to her before....  
  
'Stop it, Lona.' she told herself firmly. 'You're letting yourself think about him like he really loves you. It's just a stupid crush, is all.'  
  
She forced herself to lay still, closing her eyes as she settled down onto the table. Actually, once you got past the cold, it really wasn't too terribly uncomfortable there. Lona felt a sleepy feeling wash over her and before she knew it, she was drifting off into blissful slumber. 


	3. Chapter 3

Okay, Brenda had planned to wait a few hours and then go and check on Dr. Havens. After all, she wouldn't want to be found near his corpse too soon after the death if the potion was fatal. That might look possibly suspicious. She just couldn't resist the temptation, though. She had to find out what the potion was doing. If it was the Deadly Passion one, well she wanted to find Steg as soon as possible and as for the Deadly Poison,  
well... As she hurried down the hallway, hugging up against the wall as people passed her so that she wouldn't be seen, she reached into the pocket of her lab coat and pulled out the small vial of the remaining potion.  
Yes, there was definitely more than enough in there to kill Hook if the thing was the Deadly Poison. Oh, if she could just get that annoying pest Hook out of the way, then Steg would be so happy with her and maybe they could.... She had to bite back a giggle as she thought of it.  
  
A little bit later, Brenda slowly entered the basement heading for the morgue, her eyes alert for any sign of Dr. Havens. Now where was he? He was like a million years old, after all. Surely he couldn't have made it down there too fast.  
  
Suddenly her eyes brightened as she caught sight of the older doctor.  
He was leaning against a wall, his face pale and the fact that something obviously serious was wrong with him written all over him. Brenda watched in satisfaction for several moments wanting to make sure that it was the effects of the potion and not a heart attack before slipping away and heading upstairs. No, he wasn't grabbing his chest or anything. It had to be the potion. Well, she was slightly disappointed that she wasn't going to get to experience something called Deadly Passion but.... Of course, if she killed Hook, then what Steg would do to reward her would probably be even better. She giggled slightly as she thought of that. She had the perfect little outfit at home too. As soon as she found Hook and slipped him the potion somehow, she would just go home and get it before giving Steg the happy news. First she had to find Hook though.  
  
A little bit later, Brenda finally spotted Hook at the nurse's station near Peter Rickman's room. She shook her head slightly as she thought of Hook getting that prominent of a patient. Someone like that really should be in Steg's care. He was the head of neurology, after all. Hook was talking to that little tart of his, Christine. Really, Brenda didn't know why they even let her work her in the first place. The girl was obviously an idiot. The fact that she was there was distracting Hook rather nicely,  
though, and there was a can of soda sitting right beside his hand.  
Absolutely perfect for her plans.  
  
The pair were so engrossed in each other, they didn't even notice as Brenda slid over to the nurses' station, extracting the vial from her pocket once more as she did so and quickly dumping it into the can of soda before scurrying off and ducking into a nearby doorway so she could watch the fun.  
  
Brenda could barely restrain herself from giggling in glee when a moment after she reached cover, she saw Hook reach out and snag the can,  
picking it up and taking a large swallow. Oh, this was going to be perfect. She just hoped that he didn't drop dead before she could get back from picking up that little something from her house. Maybe she could wear it when she took Steg to see the dead body. She was sure that seeing Hook's corpse would be a real turn-on for him. Maybe they could even do it.... She bit her lip as she hurried away trying to keep from letting out a little shriek of excitement at the very thought. She had to hurry if she wanted to get back in time for the real fun. 


	4. Chapter 4

As Hook and Chris headed down the hallway, Chris smiled tentively over at him. There was something that she wanted to ask him but she was a bit nervous about it. Their relationship was still so new, after all. She didn't want him to think that she was too forward but....  
  
Hook felt himself grinning when he saw the way Chris was looking at him. He knew both from the little he had said and the hospital gossip that he had checked out after they had gotten together how bad her last relationship had been and he was willing to do whatever she needed, be as patient as she wanted him to be. He just had a good feeling about this thing, that maybe Chris could be the one for him. It looked like maybe she might be ready to move things forward a bit though, but couldn't quite say it. "Hey," he said as he reached out and laid a hand on her arm. "Do you want to come down to Hook's Kingdom with me tonight?"  
  
"I'd like that." Chris said softly before her nerves almost overcame her once more and she backtracked a bit. "I mean, if you don't have anything else that you need to do or anything, that is. I wouldn't want to...."  
  
"Chris, I would love to have you come down." Hook told her,  
leaning down and softly kissing her forehead to relax her a bit.  
  
"Oh, please!" Stegman muttered as he came down the hall and spotted Chris and Hook just as he kissed her. Honestly, how Hook got away with things like that.... Totally inappropriate behavior for a hospital and Hook's entire attitude....  
  
"Oh, Dr. Stegman." Hook said as he looked up and the noise and saw Steg coming down the hall towards them. Well, if that wasn't the perfect thing to kill a romantic mood he didn't know what was. "Did you need something?" Well, did he need something besides a very large clue that he was an idiot, not God's gift to neurosurgery?  
  
"As a matter of fact, I did need something," Stegman scowled at Hook and Chris as he spoke. If he had his way, both of them would be out of there. Well, okay, he supposed that Chris could stay as some sort of research assistant or something, about all that he imagined she was fit for, except for the little extracurricular benefits that she was providing Hook. He wouldn't mind those either.  
  
"So, what seems to be the problem?" Hook asked as he moved slightly, blocking Stegman's direct view of Chris. He didn't like the way that he was looking at her, like he either wanted to fire or bed her or possibly both. If Steg ever tried anything with her....  
  
"What we need to talk about is that malingering Sally Druse! She's wasting valuable hospital resources and her fantasies about some sort of little ghost girl...."  
  
Mrs. Druse. Hook rolled his eyes and could almost feel Chris rolling her eyes as well as Stegman started his rant about her. After they had heard the same rant so many times, they had learned to pretty much tune it out. Honestly, he didn't know why Mrs. Druse seemed to set him off so badly. Hook really had to ask her about that one day. It had to be something besides her current faking of illness in order to investigate Mary. He just hoped that Steg's current rant didn't last too long. He really wanted to get down to Hook's Kingdom so that he and Chris could get better acquainted.  
  
They let Steg ramble what felt like forever before Hook finally got frustrated and broke into his rant. "Look, it was Dr. James's decision that Mrs. Druse be readmitted. If you have a problem with that, well, I suggest that you take it up with him. Chris and I have patients though, so if you'll excuse us...."  
  
"This isn't over, Hook!" Stegman yelled, his face going red as he moved in front of Hook, blocking his path down the hallway.  
Hook started to say something but suddenly he stopped when an odd feeling washed over him.  
  
"Hook?" Chris whispered a moment later as Stegman started to yell once more. "What's wrong?" She moved around him trying to get a good look at him. She could tell something had happened from the sudden change in his entire body, like a slightly visible shudder running down the length of his body. "Hook?" He hadn't eaten some of the cafeteria food, she hoped.  
She thought that the dinner menu had said fillet of Salmonella.  
  
Hook acted like he couldn't even hear Chris as he watched Steg carefully, a strange expression in his eyes, something that Chris hadn't seen before. Oh, he really was sick. She just hoped he didn't throw up on Steg. They would never hear the end of that if he did.  
  
"Dr. Stegman, we really have to go and see our patients now,"  
Chris said firmly as she reached out and started to take Hook's arm. Okay,  
Steg deserved thrown up on but Hook didn't need the trouble that it would bring on him, not now, not when he was working out a plan for bringing Stegman down. Better get him downstairs and into bed for the night.  
  
As Chris touched Hook's arm, he pushed her away, not hard, of course, but firmly enough to shock her. She stepped back slightly, shock apparent on her face as Hook stepped towards Stegman. At first Chris thought that maybe Hook had just finally had too much and was going to hit him but there was the oddest look in Hook's eyes and a moment later, he reached out a hand, gently caressing Stegman's cheek before suddenly drawing him into a deep kiss. 


	5. Chapter 5

Chris stared at the scene in front of her, horror written clearly on her face but she really didn't know what in the world to do to stop what she was seeing. She couldn't really bring herself to believe that what she was seeing was real. Hook was kissing Stegman still, the kiss definitely deepening the longer that it went on, Hook moving Stegman up against the wall of the hallway and his hands....  
  
"Hook!" Chris darted over when she saw where Hook's hands were heading. Okay, maybe Hook was trying to play some sort of joke on Stegman and from the look on the other doctor's face, it might be working a bit too well but... She reached out, snagging the back of his lab coat and pulling him back slightly. Enough was enough here with the joke!  
  
"Dr. Hook!" Stegman shouted as Chris was able to free him from the attentions of the other doctor his pants falling down around his ankles as he took a slight step backwards. Stegman stared at him in a bit of shock,  
what had just happened not really sinking in yet, not even noticing his current state of undress.  
  
"Dr. Stegman, I'm very sorry." Chris said. Okay, this could be okay. Stegman had obviously been totally caught off guard by what Hook had done. She might be able to get him out of this mess without either ending up fired or locked up in the psych ward if she thought of an excuse fast.  
He was going to owe her so big for this one though. She couldn't believe that he had played such a stupid and extremely gross joke. Well, if he expected any kisses from her when they got downstairs, then he could just think again. She wasn't touching those lips until they had been thoroughly disinfected!  
  
After a moment of panicked thought, she spoke once more. "I'm afraid that Dr. Hook has been exposed to Martrichson's encephalitis. You would know the symptoms of that of course. Classic case."  
  
Stegman looked suspiciously at Chris. He had never heard the disease that she had just named but he certainly wasn't going to let her know that there was something connected to neurology that he wasn't up on.  
"Of course." He said as he frowned at Hook, searching his brain for any information about the odd disease as he spoke. Was it contagious? "Take him down to the ER at once! Get him out of here!" It probably was contagious and Hook had.... He thought he might be sick at the very thought.  
  
"That's where we were heading." Chris said with a smile. "Oh, and if you should happen to notice any blurred vision, shaky hands.... Well,  
why am I telling you the symptoms. I'm sure you know enough to get help before it reaches the fatal stage though." Chris's smile grew as she heard the elevator arriving and pulled Hook in before Stegman could get his little brain to fire enough and realize that she was bluffing him.  
  
"Hook, what were you thinking?" Chris demanded as soon as they were safely in the elevator and out of Stegman's hearing. "That joke is something that Elmer would pull, not you! You better be thankful that Stegman's an idiot and...."  
  
"Don't talk about him like that."  
  
"What?" Chris looked at Hook in shock and more than a little bit of confusion. That look on his face, almost like his brain was in orbit or he had just been hit with a baseball bat.... Had someone hit him with something? She had been right there and was sure she would have seen any injury but.... "Hook?"  
  
"Don't talk about him like that." A dreamy look was now on Hook's face and he suddenly let out a soft giggle.  
  
"Hook?" Okay, this was getting a bit weird. She would have never thought that Hook was the giggling type. Elmer, maybe, but not Hook.  
Maybe her excuse to Steg wasn't too far off. Maybe he really was sick.  
She reached out and anxiously pressed a hand against his forehead, feeling for any sign of fever.  
  
Hook shoved her hand away impatiently. He didn't have time to be fussed over. "Do you think he likes roses?" he asked anxiously.  
  
"Who?" Yes, this was definitely getting weird. No sign of a fever but.... What diseases could cause sudden mental lapses with no warning?  
  
"Stegman. The man that I love." Hook said, giggling again as he thought of it. 


	6. Chapter 6

"Hook, what did you just say?" Chris said as she stared at Hook in shock. Oh, he couldn't have said what she thought that she had heard. Her last relationship had definitely been more than a bit weird but this would top that one, her boyfriend suddenly deciding that he was gay out of the blue.  
  
"I said I'm in love with Stegman Isn't he the most gorgeous thing that you've ever seen?" Hook said, that odd giggle slipping into his voice once more.  
  
Chris felt even more shock wash over her although she wasn't sure how that was possible. Okay, maybe she could take Hook suddenly deciding he was gay and dumping her for a man but for Steg? Hook hated him!  
"Hook?" Something had to be wrong with him. Either something was wrong with him or something was very wrong with her for her to keep ending up in relationships like this. "Hook, you don't love...." Oh, Chris couldn't even bring herself to say Steg's name. She looked up at Hook with tears sparkling in her eyes. Had she ever told him how much she loved him?  
Chris was afraid that she hadn't and now...  
  
"Hook?" No, there had to be something that she could do to fix this. She loved Hook and she wasn't going to lose him like this, not when they had just found each other. The way he was acting, the giggling, that wasn't Hook. She wouldn't even let herself thing about the Stegman situation right now. "What happened to you?" She murmured softly as she frantically thought, trying to think of a way to fix this situation. There had to be something. After a moment, she came to a decision and reached out for Hook, grabbing him and drawing him into and embrace, her lips pressing against his, first gently and then deeper. She would worry about how to remove any possible germs from Stegman later. She had to snap Hook out of this!  
  
Suddenly, his hands came up and to her shock, before Chris could do anything, he shoved her, pushing her away from him. "Get away from me!"  
he demanded as he glared at Chris. "What do you think you're doing?"  
  
"Trying to bring you to your senses!" Chris yelled. She couldn't believe that Hook had pushed her. She had half a mind to storm off the elevator and just leave him. Let him carry on like this and get locked up by Steg. Her feelings for Hook overrode that, though. She couldn't just abandon him, not when she knew that something was wrong with him. "Hook,  
don't you remember anything about us? You invited me down to your Kingdom,  
remember?"  
  
"Why would I invite you down there?" Hook said as he continued to glare at Chris. "You're nothing but a pathetic...."  
  
Suddenly, Chris's hand was in motion, slapping him hard enough across the face to send him staggering to the other side of the elevator.  
"I'm the woman who loves you, you idiot and if I didn't know that this isn't really you acting like this...." Every instinct that Chris had was saying to flee before she could end up hurt once more but her heart was telling her no so strongly. She couldn't just abandon Hook. She loved him too much. "We're going to see Mrs. Druse. I just hope that she can contact Mary and find out what's wrong with you!"  
  
"I don't want to see Mrs. Druse! The woman's an idiot and should be thrown out of this hospital! You heard what Steg said about her and Steg's always...."  
  
"Hook, listen to me. You are NOT yourself right now so you better just be quiet until I can figure a way to fix you. You are going to see Mrs. Druse and you better be praying that she can figure out how to fix what's wrong with you. And if you don't see her, then I'm going to call an orderly and have you escorted to the Psych floor where the patients seem to have a habit of being murdered! You are not yourself and I'm not letting you run all over the hospital acting like this!" Chris just hoped that Mrs. Druse would be able to do something 


	7. Chapter 7

"Antubis, what's that smell?" Mary said with a frown as the little girl walked into the lab that Brenda had been using for her potionsmaking,  
Antubis on one side of her and Blondi on the other. "Did someone forget to take one of the bodies down to the morgue again? It had been a horrible mess the last time that that had happened and Mary had thought for a while that Bobby Druse, the one who had stumbled on the misplaced body, would be green for the rest of his life.  
  
'Looks like Brenda's been making potions again.' the anteater said with a shake of his head. Honestly, at the rate that the nutty female doctor was going and with her skill at potions making, he was surprised that the corpses in the hospital weren't piling up at an even greater rate.  
  
'I didn't eat her dinner, did I?' Blondi asked as he sniffed the cauldron that Brenda had been using, suddenly thinking that he should have paid a bit more attention to what the food they were snitching was instead of just gulping it down.  
  
'I don't think her dinner was in there.' Antubis said as he walked around to the other side of the table, standing on his hind paws so that he could see the book that Brenda had been using.  
  
"Dr. Brenda got a new potions book?" Mary asked as she joined her friend. "I don't think that it worked very well. She should probably take it back and see if she can get a refund."  
  
'It's not that kind of potions book.' Antubis shook his head as he realized what the book that Brenda had been using was. 'It's someone's potions notebook from class. And someone who failed big time too." He used his snout to flick over a few pages, reading the writing quickly as he did so. Half of the ingredients were missing and the rest were listed totally in the wrong order. If Brenda had been trying to brew from this it was a wonder the hospital was still standing. Antubis snickered slightly as he thought of it.  
  
"Antubis, wait a minute. What was on that page, the one she must have been looking at?" Mary frowned as she looked down at the page as soon as her friend turned back to it. "Deadly.... What does that word say?"  
  
'I'm not sure.' Antubis peered closely trying to make out the word Mary was pointing to. 'Passion, maybe? Either that or poison. What's wrong?'  
  
"Antubis, if Dr. Brenda made something poisonous and fed it to someone, that's really bad!" Mary exclaimed. Honestly, it seemed like Antubis didn't get the simplest things sometimes for being so smart.  
  
'She probably thought it said passion and fed it to Stegman.  
That's good.' Blondi said with a soft chuckle. The hospital would be so much safer if Brenda did poison the nutty doctor. And who knows, Brenda had been halfway sane before Stegman had shown up. Maybe if she killed him with a potion, her brain would start to function once more.  
  
"What if it's the poison potion?" Mary said anxiously. Okay, they really, really did need Stegman to go away but....  
  
Antubis frowned. Mary did have a point. He leaned a bit further over the book, reading the potions list carefully. 'I think it's okay'  
he said after a moment. 'As long as it isn't mixed with phosphorus and potassium, it should be okay.' He shook his head once more a second later.  
'Well, it will only cause hallucinations anyway.'  
  
'Hallucinations? Do we need Stegman roaming loose and possibly hallucinating?' Blondi asked. 'Isn't he bad enough when he's in what counts as a right mind for him?'  
  
"We better find him." Mary said slowly. After what Stegman had done to her friend Mona, she didn't really want to help make him better but if he was allowed to roam around, who knows who else he might hurt.  
  
'Maybe we can let Hook see him if he's hallucinating. That ought to be worth 72 hours without him while he's on psychiatric hold.' Blondi chuckled as the three headed out of the room once more in search of Stegman.  
  
A bit latter, Mary's eyes were wide with shock as she watched Hook kissing Stegman. "Antubis, what's wrong with him?!"  
  
The anteater looked up from the trash can he was sniffing in.  
'Looks like Brenda thought it was a poison potion and dumped it in his soda. Well, I suppose he won't be too upset when his head explodes in a few hours after what he just did. Better for him that way.'  
  
"His head's going to explode?" Mary cried as she hurried over to join the anteater. "Dr. Hook's trying to help us! We can't let that happen! Isn't there something we can do? Is there a way to fix this?"  
She was almost at the point of tears now as she looked at Hook once more.  
Dr. Chris had pulled him off of Stegman and the expression in her eyes as she looked at Hook almost broke Mary's heart.  
  
'We could try to brew an antidote, maybe.' Antubis frowned as he thought of doing that.  
  
"Do you know how?" Mary asked anxiously.  
  
The anteater paused before speaking. 'I slept through seven years of potions classes. I probably know more about brewing than the person who wrote that potion down.' He just hoped whoever had copied the potion into the book hadn't botched the potion so badly that it would be impossible to create an antidote for it. He started down the hallway once more,  
motioning for Mary and Blondi to follow him. 'We need to go back and get that book and then find somewhere private to work. We're going to need some help for this too." 


End file.
